Yikes - knew we would see this eventually, especially since DL, AA and to some extent, AC had already been doing this on transborder routes, but hadn’t yet. Looking up fares ex-YYZ and found dreaded BE fares. Seems to be limited routes though, at least for now. Noticed it first when searching YYZ-SJC, but no BE fares on YYZ-SFO. Looking into it more it does seem to be just on limited routes for now. In addition to SJC, Found BE on YYZ-ORD/EWR and YVR-DEN/ORD, but not on YYZ-IAD/DEN or YVR-SFO. Just did a sample of places.
interesting it’s not necessarily aligning with ACs recent expansion of basic, which, for example, started being offered on YYZ-SFO recently (a few weeks ago searches never showed basic fares but now do). My impression is AC typically offered transborder basic mostly to sun destinations but not elsewhere. So lots more basic in the TB market.